The day of Pentecost has come! Fifty days after the resurrection of Christ, God blows the Spirit into our midst and it rests on each, as tongues of fire! The Spirit comes to renew and empower and enliven. I wonder if we come this morning expecting that same renewal to happen now, even here among us?

On that first Pentecost day so long ago, God's faithful people had gathered from all the regions of the earth... all those exotic-sounding places that we heard Kurt/Diana read so well for us. And in their midst was a frightened band of folks. Disciples of someone who'd been crucified. They were frightfully scared, huddled behind closed, locked doors, fearing that the future would bring only further loss and pain. They weren't expecting anything much to happen that day. I think they only hoped they'd make it through alive.

And these were the very people Jesus himself had called into ministry. People who had traveled and worked with him for three long years. People to whom he himself had given the power to heal, to cast out demons, to teach, to preach the Good News. He had taught them about the Kingdom of God, that it had already begun in him and would be carried on by them. He had promised that God would send them a helper, the spirit of truth, to guide and sustain them after his departure, but surely it must have seemed to them that day that no such thing had happened. They felt abandoned, alone in the world, helpless, powerless to do what he had asked of them, sensing that whatever they had experienced with him was dying, too.

They were feeling what is known in the computer world as FUD. fear, uncertainty and doubt. In our day, some charge that Microsoft has created FUD throughout the software industry. I suppose that point can be argued both ways, but we Christians know that indeed in the many challenges of our lives, it's the devil at work creating FUD within us. Fear, uncertainty and doubt.

Feeling this way I doubt that those first disciples were expecting anything much to happen that first Pentecost day. But, oh boy, did it! The story in Acts 2 may well begin in that Upper Room behind locked doors, but it ends in the streets of Jerusalem! The disciples are emboldened to go public with the news of the Resurrection! They pour out into the streets, daring to risk their lives now to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ. Surely they surprised themselves with their new-found daring. To the Roman authorities, this must have appeared as madness. Others said they'd drunk too much of the new wine. How else to account for their reckless courage? After what had been done to Jesus, you'd have to be crazy or drunk to be shouting his name in the streets!

What got them out of that room? What was it that picked them up and filled them with energy and power and propelled them out the door? What transformed these fearful folks into bold disciples and prophets? The power came, just as Jesus had promised. Suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind. It filled the whole room where they were gathered.

And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each one. And they, in that moment, were filled with the Holy Spirit, and they were propelled out of their fear into the full sunlight of joyful proclamation. And all those Jews, from all over the world, who spoke every kind of language and then some, could understand. They all got the message. And the world has never been the same since. Alleluia! Do you think it could happen even here even today?

Jesus promises to send his church energy and power. In the wind and the fire those first disciples catch their breath. They ignite with purpose and passion. It's a wind that sweeps clean and pulls into action. It's a fire that refines, changes, purifies, transforms. That little band of disciples couldn't sit still once the wind and the fire, the presence and the power of God came into their midst, into their hearts. In an instant, they move from despair to hope, from fear to courage, from reclusiveness to evangelism, from self-absorption to ministry.

They leap forward, eager to be God's people, disciples of Jesus Christ. What a story to hear on the day we receive our newest class of confirmands into membership and recognize the dedication of those who completed a year-long work of study with the Word of God in Disciple Bible Study. Disciples all!

Now just what are disciples? Disciples of Jesus Christ are first of all evangelists, tellers and exemplars of God's great Good News in Christ Jesus. Showing forth the good news that God knows us and loves us and thinks we're worth saving. There's an old rabbinic saying that before every human being there goes a band of angels singing, "Behold, the image of God." Can we believe in such a band going before each of our confirmands, Behold, the image of God. Going before each and every one of us. Even us. And before each one we meet. Behold, the image of God. Disciples are evangelists, empowered to tell forth that wonderful, healing Good News.

Disciples are called to be in ministry. Each called to discover the ways God would use us to heal, to teach, to support, to bless and affirm and serve one another as part of the new Kingdom Christ has inaugurated. To set one another free. To call forth hidden gifts. To bind up, strengthen. To reach out to all the people of our community and take special care for the needs of children, the youth, and the elders. Disciples are called to be in ministry.

And, disciples are called to be in mission. Those first twelve were called out from that locked room to the streets of Jerusalem and sent from there to Rome and all the farthest corners of the earth. The Spirit's call to mission opens our eyes to the needs and hurts right in our own neighborhood that we never knew existed. The Spirit's call to mission will call us out to places we never thought we'd see, let alone care about-like Zimbabwe and Kyrgystan and Jerusalem.

Places as hard to pronounce as that initial list in the Book of Acts. "Foreign" places where we now have family in the Body of Christ. Disciples are sent out to be in mission. And disciples are called to be prophetic. To speak out in the face of evil and injustice. To stand for truth. To insist on freedom. To create peace. To ensure that human dignity is preserved for each of God's children in every place. It is the Spirit of God that speaks through them to lift up hope in this world whenever it is in short supply. Disciples are given power to be prophets.

Evangelists and prophets in ministry and mission! Now, I suppose a few of you out there this morning are thinking to yourself, "Good heavens! This is way more than I signed up for! I was just joining a church." You'd like to be looking around to see just who I'm talking about but that would be rude. So you're trying to sit still but your eyes are shifting back and forth and you're thinking, "Well, she's talking about the new confirmands. And there's also that bunch that's just spent a whole year in Disciple Bible Study. They're obviously really dedicated. But I'm not like that." Actually, if truth be known, more than one or two of us today probably prefer the security and certainty of these closed doors, don't we? Am I right? Many of us are paralyzed by FUD: fear, uncertainty and doubt!

God knows us well. And so he continues to send his mighty Spirit as wind and fire. A mighty wind to blow through us and tongues as of fire to rest on the head of each one. And God's people are transformed into new disciples, generation after generation.

So I'm going to look for a little passion and excitement as you move on out through the narthex today and on onto the sidewalk and street. I wouldn't even mind a little speaking in tongues-not the exotic kind but a real demonstration of renewed commitment and conviction. God's trying to send it. God wants us to receive it. Will we open our hearts and let it happen?

There's an old fable about an angel who returns to earth and gets very upset at seeing all the tragic errors and suffering of human beings. When the angel is once again in the presence of God, she asks why God doesn't intervene and solve the problems of the world. "Isn't there anything we can do?" she pleads. The answer comes back: "We have given them everything they need. We have given them fire and love. Now it's up to them." Now it's up to us!